


Gordon Hasn't Changed, Barney has

by Liliflower137



Category: Half-Life
Genre: Gordon needs rest and I cry for him, Hurt/Comfort, can be read as romantic or platonic, half life 2 - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:00:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26108347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liliflower137/pseuds/Liliflower137
Summary: He looked the same.Like not a single day had passed.It took him far too long to realize that was the truth.Aka I had a lot of feelings about Gordon while playing half life 2 so I poured them into Barney's head and went ham
Relationships: Barney Calhoun/Gordon Freeman
Comments: 15
Kudos: 141





	Gordon Hasn't Changed, Barney has

He looked the same.    
  
Like not a single day had passed.    
  
It took him far too long to realize that was the truth.    
  
When he stopped him at the station, to him the resonance cascade was mere hours ago.   
  
When he spoke to him in the interrogation room, he was likely still coming down off of adrenaline and morphine.   
  
When he saw him at Kleiner’s lab, Gordon didn’t know a thing about what was happening or why, what the combine even were, why Barney looked so much older.   
  
Why did it take him so long to notice?    
  
He had been waiting, hoping for this moment for twenty long, long years, for Gordon to return, and when it finally happened he didn’t pay enough attention.    
  
He  _ should _ have paid more attention.    
  
Gordon hadn’t slept, hadn’t had even a moment to rest, since the moment of the resonance cascade.    
  
It was no wonder he collapsed into Barney’s arms the way he did. Shaking and crying and so,  _ so _ tired.    
  
He even had the same bruises he did, when Barney saw him through that grate, being dragged off by soldiers years and years ago.   
  


  
=0=   
  


  
  
Barney had time to heal, to adjust to this new horrible reality that was life post cascade.    
  
Gordon had not.    
  
To Gordon this was all still horribly new.   
  
To Gordon his last day in a real bed, eating real food had been less than a week ago.   
  
To Gordon every mental wound was still fresh. His nights riddled with nightmares Barney had grown used to long ago.    
  
All Barney could do was hold him close and give him empty reassurances.    
  
Life would never be the way Gordon remembered, the way  _ he _ remembered. Even if the resistance won.    
  
Barney had made peace with that.   
  
Gordon still longed for home.    



End file.
